


There's a Storm Out There

by PinkPandorafrog



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Aromantic, F/M, Sharing a Bed, darcy meets the avengers, mystery kiss, rated for Darcy's potty mouth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-25 22:35:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7549906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkPandorafrog/pseuds/PinkPandorafrog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy's staying with her sister for Thanksgiving. Clint comes up with the bright idea of inviting everyone over for dinner. And then, of course, the power goes out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [usedkarma](https://archiveofourown.org/users/usedkarma/gifts).



The brief knock at her door pulled Darcy out of sleep. She stayed quiet, hoping whoever it was would just go away, but the door opened.

It was Laura, of course. Not _just_ Laura, though, it was Laura with a steaming mug and a pissed off look at her face. That jolted Darcy into alertness, she'd seen more than her fair share of that look over the years. At least this time it wasn't aimed at her. Judging by the coffee aroma of fresh coffee that was tickling at her nostrils, anyway.

Darcy sat up against the headboard as Laura crossed the room, clutching the blankets around her. The farmhouse was basically awesome, but it was pretty drafty in the winter. She took the coffee gratefully, holding it in front of her to just breathe in the steam for a moment.

Laura sat down gingerly on the side of the bed. She looked at Darcy for a long moment. “My _husband_ -” and that wasn't a good start. “Did something.”

Darcy pulled the mug up to her mouth and took a long drink. She had a feeling she was going to need it for whatever was coming. Swallowing, she rested the mug on her chest. “Lay it on me.”

Laura's lips pressed into a thin line. “He invited everyone over for dinner tomorrow.”

Darcy blinked for a moment in silence. They were already expecting Nat and Nick. Piet and Wanda had never had Thanksgiving before, so they were coming too. It was already promising to be a very full house, and now... More people? “How _everyone_ are we talking, here?”

Laura got up and moved around to pace across the slightly worn carpet at the foot of the bed. “He wants to make sure the team is okay.”

Despite things seeming to have ended amicably after the whole Battle of Sokovia thing, Darcy knew that Clint kinda felt like the team had splintered a little bit. Privately she thought that retirement just didn't suit him, but that was neither here nor there. “Okay, and so he's decided that this is going to be some big team bonding thing?”

“Yes.” Laura's lips pressed together again and she stopped, facing the bed, hands on her hips. “I'm glad that he wants to see everyone again, I know he misses them. And they're good people, if a little bit eccentric.”

“Yeah. Just... More warning?”

“And in the summer when we could do it outside and have all the room we wanted.”

Darcy nodded, eyes widening a little. Yeah, that would have been good. But they were just going to work with what they had. “Okay. So, how many bodies are we talking about?”

Laura paused for a moment, eyes unfocused as she stared up at the ceiling. “Nine. And you. And us.”

Darcy had just been swallowing a mouthful of coffee and spluttered a little bit, eyes going wide. “15 people?” Well, one was just a baby. She stared at her sister for a moment in silence, unable to do much more than blink. “In your house? At the same time?”

“Exactly!” Shaking her head, Laura moved around to sit on the bed again.

“Jesus fuck, they're not all planning on sleeping here, are they?” They'd have to stack people in the closets or something.

“No. Apparently Tony's already booked some hotel rooms for some of them.” Laura's shoulders relaxed a little at that, but not much.

“Well, that's something, I guess.” Darcy didn't mention that she was watching a storm that may or may not move into the area. It wouldn't, right? It couldn't. The closest hotel was about a half an hour's drive away. “Have you told Clint to go get more food?”

Laura's lips pressed into a thin line again. “Yeah. We should be set on meat.” Laura always insisted on cooking the biggest turkey to ever turkey, and they were having ham as well this year on account of the extra bodies they were already planning for. “He'll go out in a bit.”

“Okay. I need to...” Darcy sighed. She was making pie. Apparently she was going to be making _more_ pie. “I'll figure out what I need to scale up for ingredients, hopefully the stores haven't been picked clean. We should figure out a schedule for the oven.” The turkey would cook overnight and the ham tomorrow, but the rest of it... “Let me finish my coffee and I'll start a spreadsheet.”

A fond smile crossed Laura's face. “You and your spreadsheets.”

“Oh!” Darcy's eyes widened with a sudden thought. “I just had the actual best idea. Does _everyone_ happen to include Thor?”

“Yes.” Laura's smile diminished a little bit. Thor was a teddy bear, but he did take up a lot of room.

“Let me call him.” Hopefully he'd have his phone somewhere on his person. He had a habit of not carrying it, a combination of the whole accidentally killing it with lightning and that it was primitive technology for him. “He'd probably consider it an honor to help us cook. Extra hands.”

Laura's eyebrows rose faintly, but she nodded.

* * *

 

Darcy wasn't entirely sure where she'd be sleeping. She basically had her own room at the house, but the winter storm had showed up in full force, and driving out wouldn't be safe. It was currently sleeting outside.

“I'm totally going to be tenting in the barn, aren't I?” she asked Clint. “ _You_ should stay in the barn, and I'll bunk with my sister and the baby.” They were cleaning up after dinner. Darcy told Laura she wasn't allowed, and Clint really did deserve to be doing most of it.

“That's not a bad idea, though,” he said as he loaded the dishwasher. “I still have a bunch of winter camping equipment somewhere.” No doubt it would be super heavy duty secret agent stuff, too.

“And you didn't think to bring this up yesterday when we were getting everything settled out?” Darcy shot a look over her shoulder at him from where she was basically rearranging the fridge to make sure all the leftovers would fit. On the plus side, though, there probably wouldn't be that many left by morning. She was more than familiar with Thor's appetite; apparently Steve rocked a high metabolism, and so did Piet.

“You guys need to have more beer,” she called in the general direction of the living room as she pulled some out to make space. “Too bad it's not actually snowing yet,” she mused at a conversational tone, “we could just stick this outside.”

“Hand me one of those. Yesterday, I was pretty sure we were settled on the hotel idea.”

She shook her head. “Get your own. Because storms _never_ pop up at this time of the year. I'm just glad we still have power.” She bit off the end of her sentence, pressing her lips between her teeth.

“Now you did it.” He ambled over and picked up one of the glass bottles, popping off the cap easily and tossing it into the very full garbage. He gave her a pointed look, slightly tilted with amusement.

“Shut up.” She dug her elbow into his ribs. It was already too late, though. Now they were basically assured of the power going out. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence. Laura and Clint lived sort of out in the middle of nowhere, and the wind was just _howling_ out there.

His hand rested on her shoulder for a second. “You're not still mad at me, are you? Laura's not.”

“I haven't had _nearly_ enough tequila not to be mad at you anymore.” She gave him a look. “Especially if I'm sleeping in the barn.”

“I can fix that, you know.” He gave a meaningful look to the cabinet on the wall where the liquor was kept.

“Tell you what. After you've finished over there, make me a margarita, and I'll think about it.” If anything it would help keep her warm.

He grinned, and she couldn't help but smile too. “So generous.”

Darcy went over to where the kitchen opened up into the very crowded living room. “Guys.” A few pairs of eyes turned in her direction. “I'm not kidding about the beer, I need to get all this food into the fridge.”

Laura swung her feet down from where they were tucked up beside her on the couch. “I'll help.”

Darcy pointed to her. “Oh no, you don't. You're not allowed. Although...” She paused. “Clint's doing margaritas when he's done with the dishes..”

“I shouldn't.” Laura looked over to where Steve was gently bouncing little Nathaniel in his lap.

“Clint, your wife wants a margarita, too,” Darcy called back over her shoulder, putting her hands on her hips and raising her eyebrows, not _quite_ a challenge. “It's almost time for him to go to bed, right? Then just pump and dump. You'll metabolize it by the time he wants to nurse in the morning.”

Laura kinda nodded. She was obviously considering it.

“Speaking of metabolisms...” Darcy glanced around at the assembled bodies, some of whom were already starting to get up, and headed back into the kitchen.

It was a bit of a relief when several people trooped in after her. Clint had finished the first round of dishes and was standing by the platter of turkey, picking at it while he drank his beer.

“Did you hear me about the margarita?” Darcy asked, moving to stand beside him.

“Yeah. I'll grab the blender in a second.”

“And then go and look for your camping shit, right?” She gave him a pointed look.

A large hand settled on her waist, and Thor leaned around her to help himself to a piece of turkey, too.

She made a face. “The idea was drinking beer, not eating the leftovers.” Although she'd known that was going to happen anyway.

He grinned, reaching over to grab himself a beer as well. “I thought I'd do both.”

It turned out that a large number of people had filed back into the kitchen to have some more beer and leftovers. All of the metabolically enhanced, of course. Sam, who while not enhanced, did have a pretty healthy appetite. Tony. Jim, who was apparently Tony's BFF since forever. And Wanda, who seemed to be doing a lot of flirting with Steve. Which, go them.

The beer did all disappear off the counter, and Darcy started putting away the leftovers that no one was going to pick at, like the cranberries and the sweet potatoes. Clint got a bunch of ice out of the ice maker next to her, and she was aware of the blender whirring away in the background while she played Tetris with the stuff in the fridge.

But it all got put away, and when she closed it and turned back around, there was a tall glass brimming with margarita sitting over on the counter. Clint had vanished, hopefully he was finding his camping shit like he'd said he was going to.

She moved through the crowd of bodies and grabbed her glass. Clint really did make a pretty awesome margarita.

Everyone was talking, it sounded like there were two or three separate conversations going on. She should go see if Laura needed a hand getting the kids into bed.

“Hey.”

Instinct pulled her attention back to see Tony looking directly at her. Apparently the generic _hey_ had been meant for her. “I get that you're the sister-in-law, but how do you know Thor?”

Darcy's eyebrows went up as she looked between Tony and Thor. “We met in New Mexico.”

“Where the fair Darcy bested me in combat.” Thor's arm reached out, snagging around her shoulders and pulling her against his side.

“Oh, please. It wasn't much of a combat. Jane had already hit you with the van at that point.” They'd had this conversation thousands of times before. Still, she couldn't help but smile.

“So you had first contact.” Tony's head tilted slightly to the side and his eyes narrowed as he regarded her. “Interesting.”

“I thought I recognized you.” Jim nodded a little bit. “You're Dr. Foster's assistant. ”

“Yeah, that's me.” She considered for a second. “Well, was me. She's got limited space right now, so she's got the actual sciency assistant with her.” Jane had been of two minds about it, so Darcy had made the choice for them all. And it meant she got to spend the holidays with Laura and her family, so that was a plus.

There was a kind of a pop, and everything went black. An eerie sort of hush filled the room for a second.

“Fuck me,” Darcy muttered, her own voice seeming over-loud in the sudden dark. “Sorry, guys, this is my fault. I totally just said that at least we still had power.”

Lila was talking about a mile a minute out in the living room, and Darcy could hear Laura's soothing tone in response. Nat said something, she couldn't make it out over the little girl, and then a loud, “Yeah!” before Lila got quiet.

And it was fucking _dark_ , too. There were no streetlights, the storm made sure there was no starlight or moonlight.

“Too bad you still don't have that glow-lamp in your chest,” Jim mused, and she heard an answering snort.

A couple of people pulled their phones out, the screens lighting up the kitchen to the point where she could at least see silhouettes of where everyone was. That was a good idea.

The arm fell away from her shoulder. “I will fetch my hammer, see if I can help.”

“Yeah, good call.” Darcy nodded, not that he'd be able to see her. And good call also on his part not summoning the hammer in the dark. That could end up with someone taking Mew-Mew to the face.

She turned to the side, moving toward the shrouded edge of the counter. Her free hand brushed over the top, and she set her glass down. Wearing a margarita because she couldn't see it to manage it was not high on her list of things to do.

She let out a long sigh, turning and putting her back to the counter. “Hang on, guys. Let me grab my phone, there's candles in here, I'll just need to find matches or a lighter or something.”

“On the microwave!” Laura called in from the other room.

“Thanks!” Darcy called back.

She was just reaching into her pocket when someone stepped in front of her. The light was too far away and too indirect to see who it was. Someone taller than her, but basically everyone was taller than her except the kids.

Her head fell back, mouth open to say something to them, but a pair of hands settled on her waist, and a mouth closed over her own.

Someone was kissing her. Someone was kissing the fuck out of her. Like, it had been _mumble_ since the last time she'd really kissed someone, and even then it hadn't been like this.

Lips, soft and warm, moved over her own. Their tongue darted and dipped, teasing in alongside hers. Their fingers were warm, pressing in a little against her waist.

And then they were gone. Darcy opened her eyes to see that there was no silhouette in front of her, and when she pulled out her phone and beamed the screen quickly around the room, no one was even looking in her direction.

Her eyes narrowed. She moved over to the microwave and grabbed the lighter, and started lighting the candles that were set around the room for just this purpose. “I'll get the bathroom.”

“Already did it.” Laura was on it. Then again, Laura probably hadn't been waylaid for mystery make-outs.

And, by the way, what even was that? Like, seriously, what _was_ that? Or rather, _who_?

 


	2. Chapter 2

Darcy made her way back to her margarita and picked it up. Because she was definitely going to need some extra warmth if she was going to be out in the barn with no power. At least the fire had been going for most of the day and would keep the house warm during the night. “Don't worry, guys, it should be back on by morning.”

She was totally going to play it cool. If whoever kissed her was going to nonchalant through the rest of the evening, she could too. Forget all about it like it hadn't even happened.

Tony narrowed his eyes as he regarded her for a second, then his eyes moved away. “Do you guys not have a generator?”

“No.” Clint was back, apparently. “Don't need one.”

“Besides, this is kind of romantic.” Darcy gave Wanda a pointed look over her glass. “So, I'm officially going to be out in the barn, tonight. If someone wanted to get some good, quality bed-sharing done in my room. You know, bed-sharing like on TV when you sleep beside someone you have _super_ sexual tension with and wake up all spooned together.” She took a sip of her margarita. “This is awesome, thanks, Clint.” She grinned. “Bonus points if something naughty happens when you wake up spooned together.”

“I have two sleeping bags,” Clint cut in before Wanda or Steve, who looked like he was going a bit pink, although it was hard to tell in the yellow candlelight, could answer. “Be a bit warmer if _you_ found someone to share with.”

Darcy's eyes darted around the room to see if anyone reacted to that. Nothing. No smirks, no leers, no side-long glances. _Nothing_. “Yeah, I guess. Look at the line of people just waiting for their very own bed-sharing trope moment with me.” She cut Clint a pointed look. Nope. Still nothing. Not that she cared, of course.

He just smiled, shaking his head. “Sleeping bags are by the door.” He pointed.

“Yeah, you would leave them there.” She looked over at the sleeping bags. “And, seriously, what kind of person can get those things rolled back up properly like that after they've been used? Is that top secret spy stuff?”

“There's a class in it at the SHIELD Academy,” Nat said from the doorway. “Laura's getting the kids to bed.”

“That's my cue.” Clint glanced around the room. “The couch is spoken for, and Nat and Nick have the downstairs bedroom, but you guys can fight over who sleeps where for the rest of it. Lots of floor space.” He turned and left the kitchen.

Everyone else from the living room sort of filed into the kitchen. Good thing it was a big room. But if the kids were getting ready to go to bed and Cooper was sleeping out in the living room, it made sense.

The back door opened, and Thor came back in and shut it quickly behind him. He was dry, of course, and had a serious look on his face. “I moved the tree, but I couldn't repair the damage without risk of making it worse.” That made sense. Thor was a very capable guy, but if some of the cable needed to be replaced or whatever, he wouldn't be able to do that.

“It's okay. They'll probably have it fixed by morning.” Darcy rested her head against his chest when he moved through the room and came to stand by her side. “Too bad you're taking off tonight, though.” He ran a little warmer than normal, and he would be a _great_ space heater. It wasn't like they hadn't shared a platonic bed before. Although, there was a good chance he wouldn't fit in one of Clint's super spy sleeping bags.

“You're leaving?” Steve asked from his seat at the table.

“The Bartons are short on space, and I take up rather a lot of it.” Thor's tone was matter of fact, not offended or anything.

Okay, and it wasn't Thor. The mysterious kisser. She'd tried to forget about it, but curiosity was _killing_ her. And it totally wasn't Thor. He was taller than her, obviously, but he was also significantly more broad than whoever kissed her was.

And there was no way it was Steve. Steve didn't really seem like the kind of guy to flirt with Wanda all afternoon, kiss the stuffing out of her, and then go back to flirting with Wanda. Steve did not seem like _that_ guy.

So it was someone taller than her. Well... Tony, Jim, Piet, and Sam were all about the same height, so that didn't really help much. “Seriously, is there a height standard for superheroes or something?” Because, coincidentally, Clint also around the same height.

“Yeah. Makes it easy for us to swap outfits,” Nat said, amusement clear in her voice.

Darcy turned to where the redhead was coming through the doorway and stuck her tongue out. “Yeah, I bet you'd look super cute in Captain America's tights, too.”

“Hey,” Steve protested, shifting back in her chair a little.. “I don't wear tights anymore.”

“I know.” Darcy made a face. “Shame, too.” She crossed over to pick at the turkey some more, because it went _really_ well with margarita. To be fair, everything went well with margarita.

“What are you doing now that you're not working with Dr. Foster?” Jim asked, setting his beer bottle on the counter.

“Technically I'm just on vacation, but not really. I'm her RAA, so I'm still doing a lot of admin stuff, handling emails and press requests, and all that sort of thing.” Darcy shrugged. “It's good. I need internet, of course, but that should be up tomorrow too.” Hopefully. Jane would understand if it wasn't.

“RAA?”

“Research administrative assistant. I file, and data process, and talk to grant people, and I'm an extra pair of hands in the lab if she needs them.” Darcy shrugged. “It's pretty awesome.”

“You know, I could use someone like that.” Tony had sort of made his way over to them.

“Maybe you'd have one if you didn't keep scaring them away.” Jim gave Tony a pointed look.

Tony turned and faced the other man. “I think _scare_ is a little bit harsh.”

“You don't play well with others, Tony. You think it's awesome for a week or two, and then you remember that you don't play well with others and they end up leaving.”

Tony narrowed his eyes. “It's not my fault they can't keep up with me.”

Darcy shook her head a little, taking another swallow of her drink. “If you have time, though, Jane would love to hear about your whole trip into another dimension thing. I've been trying to schedule a thing, but, uh...” She raised her eyebrows a little and gave him a pointed look.

Jim very unsuccessfully hid his smile behind his beer.

Tony pressed his hand over his heart, looking completely offended. “I would _never_ blow you or the esteemed Dr. Foster off. Maybe that was something that got lost in the assistant shuffle.”

“Uh huh.” She looked down into her rapidly emptying glass. “I'm not sure I've had enough margarita to believe you, but I can totally schedule a thing.” She rested the glass on the counter and pulled her phone out of her pocket.

“I'll give you my contact info.” He slipped the phone out of her hand and swiped at it for a few seconds. “There.”

“Thanks.” She tucked it away again.

Clint and Laura came back in a bit later, and somehow it got turned around to story-telling with the express purpose of giving each other shit. That was fun, though, there were even some stories that Darcy hadn't heard before, either from Clint or Thor.

Eventually, though, Laura said that she needed to get to bed. Nathaniel didn't really care how late she stayed up at night, he still got up really early in the morning. There were hugs and kisses, and then she and Clint headed off to bed.

“Yeah.” Darcy made a face, looking over at the sleeping bags. “I should probably get out there and start pulling together somewhere to sleep, too. Last call for turkey before I put it away.”

She helped herself to the last of the margarita before she left, too, to help keep her warm of course. Finally everyone was done eating, and she tried to get the leftovers in the fridge as quickly as possible so that she didn't let too much of the cold air out. Then it was time to bundle up and head out to the barn.

Thor offered to carrying the camping shit out there for her on his way out. That was nice, meant she didn't have to struggle with trying to see over it. Also nice was the bubble of complete dryness as he headed out there. He didn't mess with the weather frivolously because it tended to have long-lasting, far-reaching effects, but his little projection of invisible umbrella or whatever it was sure was handy.

The loft really seemed like the best place to sleep. Not only did Darcy not want to cuddle up with the tractor, but the whole heat-rising thing seemed good too. And enclosed spaces stayed warm better? _Totally_ the loft.

Thor got everything up there for her, then dropped a kiss on her cheek and went out into the storm so Heimdall could whisk him away. Yeah. Definitely not Thor.

She got one of the sleeping bags spread out on the floor. As far as she could tell it was made with bat wings and magic or something, but she knew it would keep the heat in. It was all black, and it looked kinda odd spread out up there.

It was _killing_ her that she still hadn't found out who'd kissed her. Maybe she could ask Nat in the morning. If anyone knew, it would be Nat. Nat always seemed to know everything. Like, more than Nick knew everything. There really hadn't been a chance to ask tonight. In addition to not having a good excuse to drag Nat away, sound traveled _really_ well through that house without the background hum of the various things that ran off electricity.

The door in the side of the barn opened and closed. “Hello?” someone called.

Darcy went over to the opening in the floor for the ladder and stuck her head down. “Up here.”

It was Jim. He walked through the barn to the ladder and turned to look up at her. “Enough room for two?”

“Sure.”

He looked a bit odd climbing up the ladder in the sport coat he'd worn for dinner, but he managed well enough. “This is cozy.”

“Yeah. I figured it'll probably hold heat better, plus I don't want to use the tractor as a stuffed animal.”

Jim peered down over the side at the aforementioned vehicle. “Do they even use that thing?”

Darcy shook her head. “Not really. Cooper drives it around sometimes, but they don't really have anything to use it on. Laura keeps talking about getting fainting goats, and there's an _excellent_ target gallery a little way down there.” She waved her hand vaguely. “Like, it's amazing. But no animals or crops or anything.”

He rubbed his hands, tucking them under his arms. “Do you mind if I sit with you? I didn't think I'd need an actual coat tonight.”

“Should have borrowed one from Clint, he wouldn't mind.” Still, Darcy lifted up the corner of the afghan she'd smuggled out of the house with the sleeping bags. A draft of cold air hit her body, but Jim shrugged out of his sport coat and spread it out across the floor to dry, and then sat under it with her. “Your pants are wet,” she mused as he pulled the afghan down around his shoulders.

“Yeah. There's a storm outside.”

“Wait, what? Is there?” She gave him a wide-eyed look of mock-disbelief. “Since when?”

He rolled his eyes and shook his head, but he looked amused.

She traced her finger along the wood grain of the beam she was sitting on. “So did you draw the short straw or something? This isn't exactly the hotel you guys had booked, and there's not even a fire in here to keep things pleasant.”

“No. Everyone else was arguing about who _wasn't_ going to stay out here, and I figured I'd skip out on all of that. It's not bad. Besides, those look like better like better gear than we were given. Air Force.” He motioned towards the other still rolled up sleeping bag with his chin.

She hadn't heard that part. “Yeah, super spy gear from SHIELD. I don't know if you know this, but there are parts of the world that get very cold.”

“I've heard that once or twice.” He shifted a little closer, his arm stealing around her waist, hand closing over her hip.

“Well, aren't you smooth as shit?” She looked over into his smiling face. “Seriously.”

“I'm just trying to stay as warm as possible. Without my shoulder in the way, I can get a few more inches of afghan around me.”

She shook her head, but she was smiling too. “Are you still active duty? I thought you were War Machine now.” She made a face. “Iron Patriot is a stupid name, sorry.”

“Retired, actually. I'm just part of the Avengers now.” He paused for a second. “That's... interesting.”

“Oh, believe me, I've heard.” Darcy pressed her lips together as she nodded. “I hope you're prepared for the annual alien invasion, though.”

“Annual what?” He sounded genuinely confused.

“Every fucking year, aliens come to the planet and try to fuck things up. Even last year. Ultron was, like, made from alien shit. Ugh.” She slumped against his side a little. “I'm over it, and I'm _not_ an Avenger.”

“Maybe you should be.”

“Maybe. My filing skills are pretty legendary. I could get a costume that looks like a huge manilla folder.” She thought for a second. “Do people even use manilla folders anymore?”

“The Air Force does.” There was a wry tone to his voice.

She stared down at where his knee was pressing a little bit against her leg. That spot on her leg felt cold and damp. “Okay, seriously. You've soaked through my leggings. Like... Take your pants off? You _can't_ be comfortable.” At least the sleeping bag was waterproof since he was sitting on it, damp pants and all.

His eyebrow went up and he looked at her for a long moment. “Take my pants off.”

“Dude, you can't possibly be thinking of sleeping with them on. Unless you go commando?” She fought the urge to drop her eyes to his lap because, like, manners and shit. “In which case, I _promise_ you don't have anything I've never seen before.” She paused for a second. “Even if it's been... A while.”

Jim looked at her for another long moment, then got to his feet and undid his slacks. Darcy _didn't_ stare while he got his pants off and spread them out beside his jacket. Totally didn't. He _didn't_ go commando.

He went to sit down beside her again, but she held up her hand to stop him. “Hang on a second.” She unzipped the sleeping bag. After pulling her boots off, she scooted over until she was inside it, pulling it up over her legs. “Now you won't freeze.”

His lips curled up into a smile as he got in next to her. His arm went around her again as he pulled the afghan over his shoulders again. “I thought I was the one being smooth here.”

“Equal opportunity smoothness, man.” She nodded. “You know, this might even be enough sexual tension for bed-sharing.” Especially if one counted the kiss in the kitchen earlier. Jim was totally the right height, around the right build, from what she could tell.

He leaned over and brushed his lips against hers. He pulled back long enough to look at her, and then returned for a second, longer kiss.

And it was a good kiss. It was an amazing kiss. His tongue curled around hers, their lips moved and teased together. His hand rested against the inside of her thigh, suggestive but not invasive.

When he pulled away to look at her again, she narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. That was the other thing that was missing. Whoever had kissed her had facial hair. So this was... A thing.

He opened his mouth to say something, but the door banged open.

Darcy actually jumped. She peered over towards the ladder, catching her lower lip in her teeth.

“I'm pretty sure that suit of your doesn't come equipped with invisibility.” Tony? Totally sounded like Tony. There was a slight pause. “I see a ladder, though.”

Jim let out a sigh, closing his eyes briefly. “Yeah, we're up in the loft.”

She could hear the sound of someone scaling the ladder, and when Tony's head popped up into view, an eyebrow arched as he took them in. “Well, isn't this interesting?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> It's not Steve.  
> Also, several people have mentioned Bucky, he's not there. We have Pietro, Wanda, Nick Fury, Nat, Thor, Steve, Tony, Sam, Rhodey, the Bartons, and Darcy.


End file.
